


Tied Together With A Smile

by opheliahyde



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Future Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-09
Updated: 2011-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-17 00:26:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9296177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opheliahyde/pseuds/opheliahyde
Summary: It's hard to be the ones left behind.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for blackmamba_esq 's prompt in _The Women of The Vampire Diaries_ comment-fic meme. The prompt was _future!fic, memory lane_. Lots of love to my beta scorpiod.

They left. Five years is a long time to go without growing up and people were starting to ask questions; they were starting to wonder how Caroline Forbes still looked seventeen when she was supposed to be twenty-two, why Damon and Stefan Salvatore never aged from the day they arrived. They had to go and Elena had to stay.

She tries to make it work. She really does. She signs up for classes, the ones the interest her and the bare minimum of required classes she has to take because she still doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life. She never thought this far ahead, she didn’t think this was her future.

She tries, but she didn’t think it would be so hard just to be normal.

 

 

 

Matt rises up in the ranks at the Grill and his boss offers to pay for some business classes at the local community college if Matt would stay on permanently. He accepts because no one else was banging down his door with offers and he works his ass off to keep the house, to feed and clothe himself, to take care of his mom whenever she blew through town. He doesn’t have the money to pay his own way through school, he doesn’t even know what he’d go for, and he’s good at this, good at taking care of people. He’s been doing it his whole life.

He works hard and keeps himself busy and doesn’t think about the letter Caroline left him that he still hasn’t opened yet. He doesn’t think about how she said goodbye, with a kiss to his cheek and left him with his head still full of questions.

He wonders sometimes if the letter has the answers he seeks, but he’s too scared to find out.

 

 

 

Elena writes her papers for class at the Grill because it’s the only place she can find peace, some semblance of normality. Alaric and Jenna fill the house with their happiness and wedded bliss, while Jeremy brings Tyler Lockwood over and he’s always there, a constant reminder of how Elena is alone. Bonnie took off to find her cousin Lucy a few years ago, to chase down the one person who can teach her about her heritage, and sends a letter, or a postcard every few weeks and calls every other day, but it’s not the same. It’s not the same as having her here, near enough to reach out and touch.

It’s like Elena lost both her best friends.

The last postcard she sent read, _I saw Caroline in Arizona, she looked well. Stefan wasn’t around, but she was making Damon play tourist with her. I’m glad someone is around to keep him on his toes. I didn’t say hi, it was too hard._ Elena keeps it in her purse and takes it out every now and again, running her fingers over the words, over Bonnie’s familiar, loopy handwriting and she wishes she was there, can almost feel the desert sun on her face.

Matt refills her coffee cup without being asked and she smiles up at him as he grins down at her, and it almost feels like old times. “So is Tyler still hanging out at your house?” he asks, always managing small talk like a pro, always hitting just near enough to the problem to get her to talk about it without directly asking.

“Yes,” she says, lifting the cup to her lips and breathing in the delicious caffeine before taking a sip. “If you told me back in high school in a few short years Tyler and my brother would spend every day together, almost inseparable, I would have laughed myself sick. A lot’s changed since then.”

“I know, right?” Matt says, leaning against her table. “Who’d have thought, your brother and my best friend. Crazy.”

Then there’s silence and Matt lingers at her side and she wants to say something, but she can’t find the words.

“Did you ever think… that this is where we’d be right now?” she asks, finally.

Matt sighs, rubbing his hand down his face and then he sits down across from her, suddenly looking more tired and world-weary than she’s ever seen. “No,” he says. “I never really did, Elena.”

“I thought so.”

Matt smiles at her again, but it doesn’t reach his eyes; it’s comforting nonetheless. It says, _I understand_ and that’s what Elena needs right now. “You know, I get off work in an hour. If you wanna talk… we can talk.”

“I think I’d like that, Matt.”

 

 

 

They barely remember how to do this.

Matt cups her cheeks gently and kisses her softly, and Elena leans into him, just wishing he’d fold her up and they could forget about everything that had happened, wishing she’d forget those warm eyes as surely as he’s wishing he’d forget blonde hair. He pulls back and she rests her forehead against his, her lips curling.

“This isn’t working, is it?” he asks, laughing in a way she’s missed, the sound bringing back the feeling of simpler days when it was just them and everything felt right.

Elena shakes her head. “Maybe someday, but not right now.”

“Alright,” he says, maneuvering her around, pulling her back first against his chest and wrapping his arms around her in the way she wanted. She rests her head against his neck and holds his hands in hers “Is this better?” Matt asks. She feels the rumbling of his voice against her back, the vibrations in his throat against her cheek, and she’s surrounded by the scent of his cologne he still hasn’t changed after all these years. It feels safe, like it always has.

“Yes, much,” Elena says, burrowing closer.

There used to be a little girl who had a friend she grew up with and thought she’d marry someday because everything is simple when you’re young and untouched from the complexities of the world. Elena can still remember being that little girl who had it all planned out, who was practical enough to realize she wanted to marry her best friend and not some mysterious prince who would come and sweep her off her feet, but wouldn’t know her favorite flavor of ice cream or know exactly the right way to make her feel better.

But she’s not that little girl anymore, she hasn’t been for a while, and maybe Matt isn’t that same boy, either.

“Are you ever going to open your letter?” she asks him.

She feels Matt shift under her and she watches the twitch in his jaw. “Maybe someday. When I’m ready.”

“Well,” Elena says, grinning as she taps his nose. “It’ll always be waiting for you.”

 

 

 

One day, Matt plucks the letter out the drawer he put it in, feels the thick weightiness in his hands as he takes in worn and crinkled appearance of the paper, the yellowing with age. But her penmanship is still stark and never-fading on the front, sweeping his name across the envelope.

His fingers slide under the top, catching and tearing at paper as he moves across the width.

He pulls out the letter and unfolds it.

Matt reads.


End file.
